Blog | Alison Morton Author

Conflict for characters - how to make a decision

How do you make a decision? Whether it’s buying a new pair of shoes, going to law or plunging into a new life in a different country and culture, it’s a complicated question.

First of all, there’s an instinctive reaction to the decision: you see, you want, you say yes. Then your brain kicks in: do I have the money, will I have the time, will this change my life, will I look better, will I enjoy it, do I want all that upheaval?

Basically, it boils down to the hassle of pushing yourself to change from where you are versus the pleasure you will gain or threat you’ll avoid once you’ve made the decision.

Most people love the status quo – it’s familiar, the pluses and minuses are there to be seen (And I’m not talking about the rock band!). The original Latin in statu quo res erant ante bellum (in the state in which things were before the war), meant all troops were withdrawn and boundaries back where they were before the war. These days status quo generally means the ways things are set up at the moment. Status quo can also refer to a situation that nobody likes but the result of changing it seems too risky.

Here you have two choices: wait and see, or take a risk to change it.

Human beings tend to be irrationally loss averse. In other words, we sometimes prefer to avoid the risk of loss even at the cost of a better than fair prospect. This isn’t us being wimpish; our propensity to protect what is already in hand is hard-wired into our brains. For most of human evolution, our biological ancestors lived in an environment where resources were scarce. If you wanted to feed your family, you had to hunt or gather. If there were natural impediments such as extreme weather, or unfriendly wildlife like sabre-tooth tigers, you might not survive. Over countless generations, this developed a biological basis to loss aversion.

So, taking a decision means overcoming an instinctive dislike of risk. For most people it’s “Shall I buy those shoes?”, “Can I get into that parking space?”, “Which type of pasta shall we have for supper?”. For your hero or heroine, it’s “Shall I turn my back on this?”, “Shall I put myself in danger?”, “Can I trust him/her?”, “Why would I leave my safe but boring life and risk an uncertain but wealthy life with strangers?”.

Writers have the power of pushing characters to that decision point by introducing a crushing threat. Readers love seeing characters struggling with these decisions, it makes delicious tension. But writers must chart how their characters deal with conflict and come to make decisions or they’ll look unbearably smart and a bit wooden.

Of course, it’s a heroic virtue to be able to make a good decision under pressure, but even the most decisive character has to have a wobble from time to time…

References: Kahneman & Tversky’s Prospect theory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_theory) and Pearlman’s Loss aversion, evolution and Risk complacency (http://philpearlman.com/2009/02/03/75319882/)

UPDATED 2022:Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO and RETALIO, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories. Audiobooks are available for four of the series.Double Identity, a contemporary conspiracy, starts a new series of thrillers. Double Pursuit, the sequel, is now out!

Find out more about Roma Nova, its origins, stories and heroines and taste world the latest contemporary thriller Double Identity… Download ‘Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email newsletter. You’ll also be among the first to know about news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.

So, alternate history?

What if the Nazis had won the Second World War (Fatherland – Robert Harris, The Man in the High Castle – Philip K Dick) or England had remained Catholic (Pavane – Keith Roberts, The Alteration – Kingsley Amis) or if Alaska rather than Israel had become the Jewish homeland (The Yiddish Policemen’s Union – Michael Chabon)? Or perhaps if Roosevelt had lost the 1940 election and right-wing Charles Lindbergh had become US president (The Plot Against America – Philip Roth)?

These are serious works. No aliens, no time-travellers slipping back to points in history to change it, no fantasy or magic, just a development of history on a different course triggered sometimes by a very minor historical event. I recommend Erik Durschmied’s The Hinge Factor – How Chance and Stupidity Have Changed History which shows how easily this could, and has, happened.

So what if it did?

The trigger causes a “point of divergence” (POD) splitting it from “our timeline” i.e. the history we know and live in, to the “alternate timeline” in which some or many things have changed to create a new, alternate world. Quite a number of things in the alternate world will seem the same as the ones we know in our normal time which gives us a false anchor. Others, including social structures and attitudes as well as politics and nations, may be disturbingly different.

Scientific investigation into parallel universes and alternate worlds has prompted new thought and writing. With the advent of the Internet, wide-ranging discussion and speculation has appeared in newsgroups, blogs, and produced sites like Althistory Wiki, Alternative History Weekly Update and a well-respected magazine AltHist which publishes alternative and historical short stories. The Historical Novelists’ Society embraces alternative history in its remit and is including a session on alternative history in its September conference.

In books, film and television, alternate history has often been flavoured with time travel or timeslip, e.g. Sliding Doors or Eric Flint’s 1632 series of books or fantasy such as Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell or Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series. Steampunk, which originated during the 1980s and early 1990s, incorporates elements of alternate history as well as science fiction, fantasy, horror and speculative fiction.

As with any other genre or sub-genre, the writing varies, as does the plausibility of themes and plots. Personally, I believe you have to know your own timeline history well, or know how to research it methodically and extensively before attempting to “alternate” it. New terms have been created in alternate history discussion groups to deal with anomalies. Said to have originated on the usenet group soc.history.what-if, the term “alien space bats” is used to criticise implausible alternate histories or an improbable deus ex machina. Dan Hartland in Strange Horizons called alien space bats “everyone’s favourite SF plot McGuffin”.

For me, the most appealing alternate history stories are those set naturally in their world without info dumps or long explanations. Yes, we need some clues, and yes, we need character 1 to tell character 2 to duck when a steam-driven arquebusque loaded with a radiating bullet is about to blow their head off. But we don’t need a full explanation of how the technology was developed. Keith Robert’s Pavane suffers a tad from this. In her Eve Dallas detective series set in 2057 J D Robb effortlessly describes the futuristic elements as they arise, and only in bare, scraped detail. These are not alternate history as such, but crime stories set in a different, though possible future. I use them to illustrate the style I’m aiming for.

Writers can use techniques such as photos, pictures, the new person asking the long-standing resident, reading the info online, reading a map, or asking a guide, getting an older relative/mentor to recount something to fill in these gaps, but not in a dump-y way. The essential thing is to get the alternate world’s history right and then develop it around the story in a plausible way. This is not easy and the odd spreadsheet helps…

At its best, alternate history challenges fixed ideas while providing entertainment. Readers, especially those who haven’t tried an alt history book before, are intrigued by the different setting, but are still after the things I listed at the end of this post – in summary, a cracking good story with emotional grip. In my own books, where the POD was over 1,500 years ago. I use an alternate world not only as a setting but as an essential interactive layer – a mix of culture clash with temperament clash.

And plot? In Book 1 the heroine, from a version of the New World that looks reasonably familiar to us, is having enough trouble dealing with an uncompromising special forces officer from a very different Europe, let alone struggling to stay alive when a vengeful enforcer is attempting to obliterate her.

Alternative history gives us a rich environment in which to develop our storytelling. I’m taking full advantage of this, but above all, I’m aiming to give the reader some damn good thrillers!

More info:
Alt Hist: Historical Fiction and Alternate History -The new magazine of Historical Fiction and Alternate History
Alternative History Weekly Update
Wikipedia – Alternate history article
Uchronia: The Alternate History List is an online database that contains 2900 alternate history novels, stories, essays and other printed material
Althistory.wiki

A “good” rejection

Agents are busy people – we know that – so when I read this (handwritten) note, I was strangely pleased:

“Please forgive my incredibly slow response, but I liked your writing and had put it aside to get back to. It’s not right for my list, but I’m sure you will find an agent to suit.”

The cynical may say it’s pretty standard, but this was a personal note added after the formal printed text. Me, I regard it as a near miss.

The last few replies from agents have said nice things about my writing: “well-written”, “intelligent”, “your work is good”, so I’m happy that the quality of my work is at publishable level.

It’s the list thing. Publishing is at an uncertain place and I can understand that companies are opting for the safe and known. I write thrillers with an alternative history setting, which is probably speculative in all senses of the word.

But I have faith, but hopefully not hubris, that my books will be published.

So what makes a good read?

As I promised in the previous post, I’ve turned my beady eye to current bestsellers and read through some of the Amazon bestselling rankings reviews. These are some of the words the readers and critics used about them:

The Thread – Victoria Hislop
Twin timeline, discovery, history, fast narrative, sense of pace, fresh, intrepid storytelling, layers, interconnection, drama, page turning quality, well researched, evocative, something to lose yourself in

Me Before You – Jojo Moyes
Charismatic, credible, compelling characters, heartfelt, poignant, makes me laugh, perceptive, well-drawn, powerful, heartfelt, thought provoking, emotional punch, moral dilemma, life and death decision, entertaining

Before I Go To Sleep – S J Watson
Bewildering internal world, chilling intimacy, betrayal, mystery all the way, unravel, tension, discovery, shocking

The Kashmir Shawl – Rosie Thomas
Quest, missing baby, two timelines, physical jeopardy, women’s friendship, honest, compassionate, family secrets, love, warmth, clarity, touching, believable

The Blood Banker – David Prever
Gripping, vivid storytelling, action sequences keep you reading, plot races along, cracking good read, well-researched, page turner, filmic, believable characters, danger, suspense, background info well led in, authentic

The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller
Timeless language, historical details perfect, captivating, enthralled, ravishingly vivid, convincing, original, clever, in a class of its own, incredibly compelling, seductive fresh take, extraordinary, beautifully descriptive, heart-achingly lyrical, love story, sensitive, intuitive, sexy. dangerous, mystical

and a personal favourite:
Fatherland – Robert Harris
Highest form of thriller, non-stop excitement, clever, ingenious, convincing, chilling, suspense, gripping, tightly constructed, utter surprise, fast-paced

My conclusion?
Irrespective of genre, style or tone, several things emerge:
pace/tension
research/authenticity
cleverness
attention gripping/enthralling
emotional pull/relationship
credible characters
mystery/suspense/secret
a big dilemma
and a surprise element, time or setting that’s just a bit different.

Or is there something else?

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers – INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO and RETALIO, and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories. Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Double Identity, a contemporary conspiracy, starts a new series of thrillers. JULIA PRIMA, Roma Nova story set in the late 4th century, starts the Foundation stories. The sequel, EXSILIUM, is now out.

Find out more about Roma Nova, its origins, stories and heroines and taste world the latest contemporary thriller Double Identity… Download ‘Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email update. As a result, you’ll be among the first to know about news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.

Security for the Olympics - a perspective

I don’t get ranty very often, but the anti-rant barrier broke this morning as I listened to the mouthings on Yesterday in Parliament on BBCRadio 4.

The Olympic Games security plan looks poorly planned and executed, so further military personnel have been brought in to help.

Several points: Thank goodness we have professional, well-disciplined forces we can draw on. Thank goodness they are highly trained and experienced in dealing with civilians under stress. Thank goodness they are not the pitiless troops of some African warlord who corrupts and kills children. Instead, we have citizen soldiers, well respected by 98% of the community.

The press has a weird attitude. They love being amongst soldiers, borrowing their lifestyle and perceived glamour for a few hours. They mouth words like “assets” and “inflitration”, wear camouflage jackets and armoured vests as they pop in to do a piece from Afghanistan. War zones are dirty, noisy and scary as hell, but the military make the press welcome and show more the cameraderie and dedication than the relentless pressure and sheer slog of military life.

On the other hand, the press bitches about the impact these “tough and dangerous troops” are going to have on the Olympic visitors. Me, I’d feel a lot safer with them on the gate than being checked by some bored bloke or girl doing a few weeks’ work after a short course in ticking boxes with a private company. Maybe that’s harsh on the security company, but you get the idea.

And whatever the merits of the criticism about the security plan, I feel depressed and angry when opposition MPs and the press project soldiers as threatening or intimidating just to score points. They are there to protect us. And don’t get me started on the moans about having strategic artillery points in normally civilian areas. They are there to protect us. Those positions on top of tall buildings could be the one chance of stopping some mad terrorist’s incoming threat. Some say the military’s presence will attract terrorists – the residents wil become targets. No, if terrorists were planning a strike, they would come anyway. And the biggest moaners would be the first to complain if they were attacked and no such provision had been made.

The UK is still on a high threat level. The Olympics are a golden opportunity for terrorists to strike as well as a superb chance for 99.5% of us to watch world class sport of every kind.

A government’s prime duty is to protect its citizens. What they are proposing is a light touch. It really is. You won’t see most of the security measures in place and won’t have noticed the huge preparation that has gone on for many years before. The security organisations, military and police are working hard to protect all visitors to the games so the latter don’t have to be concerned, but can relax and enjoy them.

The security is there to protect you. It may be personally irritating, but it’s collectively a shield. Grow up and deal with it.